Chef, consultant, and culinary instructor Dana Slatkin trained in France and worked in New York, but now she's settled into laid-back beach life in Los Angeles. In Slatkin's new cookbook, Summertime Anytime: Recipes from Shutters on the Beach, she shares recipes for entertaining guests or dining with family and ideas for seaside living in sections like "Six Uses for a Bucket of Sand."
Q: What recipes do you like to use when entertaining?
A: Chopped salad. Everyone seems to like chopped salads. And you can use leftovers from last night's grilled chicken or grilled fish, a can of tuna, cheese—it's a very flexible salad. I'm still working on my son to try salads, and I'm not giving up!
Q: What time-savers do you use in your kitchen?
A. I make all my starches ahead of time and freeze them. I always have frozen cooked couscous and frozen cooked brown rice. When you have hungry kids, they're not going to be patient, so I find that the microwave is my best friend when I'm trying to get dinner on the table fast.
Q: What was your biggest cooking disaster?
A: Serving fish that was past its prime at a dinner party. My kitchen stunk for days.
Q: Guilty food pleasure?
A: Cookies. Nutritionally they are totally gratuitous, but I can't resist a warm one.
Q: What do you cook at home/with kids?
A: There are two things my kids love about cooking: getting messy and licking the bowl. Anything that involves those is going to be a big hit.
Q: Who or what inspired you to become a chef?
A: I spent a year living in Venice, Italy, and fell in love with the café culture. I realized I love bringing people together, and nothing does that better than a good meal.
Q: Best cooking tip?
A: Just do it!
Q: Favorite kitchen tool?
A: I always cook with rubber gloves. They have saved me from many tragic knife encounters and are more hygienic, too.
Q: Any tips for getting picky kids to eat?
A: I am a big fan of deep-frying vegetables in a heart-healthy oil like grape seed or canola. I'll let the kids do the breading, and I handle the hot oil. We make zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, and green-bean fries and keep them in the freezer in Ziploc bags. They reheat beautifully in the oven and are a great way to introduce picky eaters to vegetables.
Q: If you haven't shopped in a week and need to prepare a quick family meal, what do you make?
A: Pasta! I always keep boxes of spelt or brown-rice pasta, cans of San Marzano tomatoes, and garlic and onions in the pantry.
Q: Do you have favorite food-related charity or cause?
A: Teaching kids to cook. I give classes once a month in our home and encourage everyone to get kids interested in cooking. If we can get kids to gather around the table more often to share a good meal, we have a shot at making the world a little better, one meal at a time.
